


Very Big Steam Powered Jaegers What Smote

by raven_aorla



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Fusion, Gen, Gender Identity, Pacific Rim AU, Sort of RPF, Sort of SPG Lore, Steam Powered Jaeger, Trans Issues, references to prejudice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 07:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In San Diego, California, it is rumored that the reclusive heir to a long line of eccentric roboticists has managed to produce a Jaeger that runs on steam - and yet can be run by the standard two operatives while in action. Matt "Stop Making Doctor Who Jokes" Smith will finally learn if these rumors are true, when Walter Robotics recruits him, needing a currently un-partnered drift-qualified pilot. </p><p>He's wrong, by the way.</p><p>Walter Robotics has three.</p><p>And none of the operatives could be considered "standard".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Very Big Steam Powered Jaegers What Smote

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing is mine. Inspired, of course, by the band members' enthusiasm for the movie, and also by the movie's implication that the first successful teams were identical twins. Not for profit and nothing but love meant. 
> 
> The robot names and teams are not meant to be a 1:1 correlation between who plays what in SPG. I wanted the fictional versions of the Bennetts to be copilots, so I'm having The Spine be piloted by other people while they're busy piloting Rabbit.

"I somehow doubt you're Peter Walter, unless that's an alias," Matt said to the young lady who met him at the gate of the coastal lab/barracks/weapons base codenamed "The Manor". She was comfortably dressed in dark jeans, loafers, and a cardigan, but she had a radio holstered to her hip and she showed no surprise at his arrival in an area where pretty much everyone else had evacuated within hundreds of miles. The vehicle that Walter Robotics paid for to get Matt here had practically screeched away the moment Matt got out, the driver terrified of being so close to the sea.

She smiled and turned on her heel, seemingly certain he'd follow her, sliding her ID through various automated checkpoints without breaking her brisk stride. "No, Peter prefers to stay as close to his labs and office as possible. I'm Paige, and I take care of the administration side of the company while he comes up with the plans and theorems. Steve, our engineering expert, actually translates Peter's blueprints into reality. Our current pilots all pitch in with both chores and grunt work. We're not military so we don't use titles. Do you prefer Matt or Matthew?"

"Matt." He saw a huge cloud of steam rising from the far side of the complex, any possible Jaeger hidden behind the hastily-built headquarters that looked more like a parking garage than anything else. "Shoestring budget, huh?"

"Yeah. How long did you know Michael Reed before the whole..." She swirled her hand around, presumably to indicate the new world order, Kaiju a regular occurrence rather than a monster movie idea. 

Instead of going forward into some sort of doorway, Paige moved a lightweight fake rock to reveal a hatch that she opened and climbed down into. "Just my first year of college. He was a senior. We played in a band...He was really good. Eleven different instruments like he was born to them, but never learned how to read music. Should I throw my backpack down? I didn't bring any other stuff." 

The call from Michael had included some questions about whether Matt had any family or other loved ones to look after anymore. When Matt said no, not anymore, Michael said he could find some here with Walter Robotics. And promised the food would be better than at the displacement camp, where he'd been sharing a shanty with five other people and hoping to be resettled in Oklahoma or Nebraska before he forgot what having his own room felt like.

What he considered his essential worldly possessions were all in that bag. He'd distributed the rest among the other homeless San Diegans. It was small enough that Paige caught it without any hesitation as he let it drop down. "I'm surprised you guys found out about my drift-compatibility test results," he continued as he climbed after and locked the hatch behind him, faint orange light compensating for the sun being shut away. 

A lot of people in the camp had taken it every time the recruiters gave them a chance, hoping that would be their ticket to a job and a new home. Some of these applicants, like him, found out that they were almost, but not quite, good enough for the military. Matt's problem was that though he did well in simulations and in bonding with the Jaeger interface he hadn't been able to enter the drift with anyone else. Michael hadn't explained why he thought this time would be any different. Matt figured that even if things didn't work out he could probably get the people here to let him stick around as part of the team, after the trouble to get him here, and because Michael would never let an old friend get left in the cold because of an innocent mistake.

"One of our pilots is amazing with computers, and Michael Reed doesn't lose track of people he cares about," Paige replied, helping him get his bag back on. "If it gets too heavy let me know. I can take a turn. It's not too far, though."

......

The briefing over the 17th Northwest Row community phone had included the warning to never ask Peter Walter VI why he wore a wooden mask with a keyhole instead of more typically mask-like openings. Under certain conditions Peter might volunteer the information but for anyone else to ask about it or to reveal the details of the accident to someone else were two of the very few things that made Peter seriously angry. The unexpectedly young scientist - he couldn't be more than three or four years older than Matt - had plenty to talk about anyway. 

"Nice to meet you, Matt," Peter said, shifting his cane from his right hand to his left so he could shake hands properly. "Since pretty much all the known Jaeger pilots get snatched up by the various international armies, we got creative with whom we hire, people usually considered too much of a risk. Steam power itself is considered silly and outdated, even though it means that as long as you keep the boiler going you just need to add water, plus you don't have to worry about getting electricity drained or accidental nuclear leaks. Michael and his old copilot Jon were best friends from childhood rather than a preferable biological or romantic bond. Jon asked us to send him back to his family, who resettled inland, because even after physical therapy will get him to full life functioning he won't be able to commit his whole self to the team, you know?"

Matt nodded, taking in the blackboards filled with scribbles and sketches, the many tables with engine parts and computer systems and an impressive number of wooden pencils covered in bite marks piled on them, and a dreadlocked man in a sleeveless shirt, cargo pants, and boots so badass they put the most apocalyptic aesthetic to shame. Said man had said nothing so far, just twisted back and forth on his swivel chair, toying with a small crocheted doll who looked a lot like a miniature version of himself. Including piratical facial hair and a bandana. Matt thought he looked like he could be a berserker warrior as well as an engineer. "So Michael wants me to try drifting with him?"

"Yip yip. When Paige gets back from the meeting she's having with the rest of the crew we can do introductions all at once to not waste time." Peter scrabbled at his auburn hair. "Steve, is the chewing gum I got tangled in there still tangled in there?"

"I thought that was some kind of hair bow," Steve replied, removing a small pair of scissors from his toolbelt and stepping towards Peter, tucking Lil Steve into his largest pants pocket. "Like you were copying Carolina's style or something."

Peter sat and laid his head sideways on a clear patch of table. "Why would I do that? Carolina doesn't even like sweater vests. Bunny likes the stripy ones but that's cause Bunny likes everything with stripes. One of these days we're going to wake up and find out that Rabbit's been repainted with black and white stripes. And Bunny's going to be really tired but have an unsettling grin that shines through all the paint splotches."

"Why's one of the Jaegers named Rabbit?" Matt asked, but Steve and Peter were busy wrangling the unexplained gum-plus-hair crisis to answer him.

.........

"'All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, listener, runner, digger, prince with a swift warning. Be cunning, and your people will never be destroyed.'" 

Matt blinked at Bunny Bennett, one half of a pair of identical twins, the most common type of successful pair. "That's a really neat quote. Um...it doesn't...it doesn't really explain it, though."

David Bennett, identifiable by having not shaved his head and by mysteriously being two inches taller, nudged a carton of some beverage at Matt from across the mess hall table. "Have some of the rice milk. It's surprisingly good. That quote's from Watership Down. It's a bunch of rabbits on an epic struggle for survival. But still being rabbits. One of their folk legends. Great book that got made into a really, realllllly creepy animated movie."

"It was a great animated movie and you liked it as much as I did." Bunny was indeed wearing a gray shirt with black horizontal stripes, Matt noticed, while David's shirt was plain black. "Peter said I could name it cause I won the reverse lottery he held. Sam and Carolina's is called Hatchworth because its got a relatively big hatch to store ammunition. The other one, the one you're auditioning for, is the Spine. It's got a titanium alloy spine that helps channel this really cool tesla coil lighting zappy thingy. It's epic and so cool."

"So were Sam and Carolina also passed over cause they're platonic friends? They don't give me the 'couple' vibe." Matt could see Carolina and Paige discussing something that seemed to amuse them greatly as they waited for their turn at the microwave. Steve was heating up his dinner and passing the time by putting Lil Steve on Michael's shoulder and acting like Lil Steve was the one making snarky remarks. Michael grinned in response, picking absentmindedly at the hem of his fraying purple tank top with one hand as he held his tray with the other. Sam was still going through the locker of canned and freeze-dried food and inspecting the labels. "Also, what's he doing?"

"Sam and Carolina are best friends, yeah, and they're both vegans. Or they try to be. Food's harder to get these days so sometimes they bend their own rules. Sam's checking ingredients. If he can't get vegan he tries for vegetarian, and if he can't get that he tries pescetarian, and if that doesn't work either he tries free-range, and if none of those are options he refuses to eat until someone yells at him. Usually Steve."

"Or you," Bunny said to David, nudging a cookie-like edible around with a pinkie finger. "Do you think this might be sweetened with corn syrup?"

"Corn syrup's gotten too expensive these days. Silver lining I guess. Carolina skips the not-eating-till-yelled-at part." 

"Gotta fight those Kaiju at full capacity," Carolina explained, taking a seat beside Matt. "Paige tipped me off that these nutrition bars actually taste better when they're *not* heated and I've been going to this trouble for nothing all this time."

"It took me a while to find that out too," Paige said, just before kissing Bunny for a long enough time that Carolina gave a wry smile and took Paige's tray out of her hands and put it on the table.

"Hey babe," Bunny said softly once they let go of each other, taking Paige's hand.

There was silence for a while after that. Sam, Steve, and Michael made it to the long table before Matt spoke. "Peter said all the pilots here were different from what the military wants. How are you two, the Bennetts, not what they want? Identical twins are considered the closest to sure thing."

David's face turned solemn. "We were in training when our supervisor found out Bunny's gender identity."

"We might be genetically identical but I consider myself a woman," Bunny explained. "David doesn't give a damn. It doesn't change our relationship. But apparently top brass thinks that makes us incompatible. And alarming. Also estrogen treatments are really difficult to get during Armageddon, did you know? Makes a girl cranky."

"Cranky Bunny is still lovable Bunny," Paige said. "Peter calls Bunny her real name and not her legal name. It's worth the inconveniences."

With all this conversation Matt was forgetting to put food in his mouth. He should fix that. In a sec. "What inconveniences?" 

Then the power cut out. "These inconveniences." They were in pitch darkness but that was definitely Steve's voice.

Sam managed to grope his way to a seat without losing his food. "If I knock my cup of water onto anyone else, I am so, so sorry. Unless it's David. David has it coming."

"You're a great friend, Sam," David replied, deadpan.

Small pink and purple lights appeared nearby. "I've got glowsticks. We can probably see by them if we wave them really fast," Michael said.

........

Locking into the Spine for the first time was scary, sure. But it was also pretty rad. He'd had a lot of dreams about doing something like this. 

Unfortunately he'd also had dreams about trying to drift with someone else again. These were not the good kind of dreams.

Michael turned his head to look at Matt. "I've learned a trick. I used to have trouble getting into the drift too."

Matt couldn't tremble that well when encased in that flexible armor stuff that made him self-conscious about how his butt looked on the way into the Jaeger, but it's the thought that counts. He felt like a tuning fork. "Yeah?"

"When we were in that band. The Peoplebots...."

"That's a terrible name," Steve said over the communication link.

"I dunno, I kinda like it," Peter VI replied, also over the link. "Do you guys still need me for this, by the way? Paige made me promise to eat something within the next three hours and I'm almost at the deadline."

"You could eat with the rest of us," Michael said, his voice soft and kind in a way that you never heard in the army. All the others Matt had tried to drift with weren't cruel, but they weren't kind either. Noble and stoic. Not - not funny and cheerful and sweet. Not like people said he was. 

Maybe that had been the problem all along.

"No, I can't," Peter replied quietly.

"It's a make-believe boundary," Michael said. "But I'll leave it for now. Go take care of yourself bro. Matt and I gotta mind-meld and all."

Matt thought he heard Steve chuckle a little. "So what's your trick?" Oh no, Matt's nose itched. Next time he'd ask for a velcro strip in his helmet to rub his nose against. Like the Moon landing astronauts put in after going nuts over itchy noses. In a Jaeger it was possible to take the helmet off, but he didn't want to come across as even more rookie than he already did.

"When I'm done, I need you to repeat after me, in chorus with me. I know you're more into drumming but you were good at harmonies." Michael shut his eyes.

"Your trick is singing?"

"Just this song. It has to be this song. It has to be."

 

here I go again  
I'm breaking up  
I'm shutting down  
inside, outside  
decommission  
wonder if it's painful?

reading love  
and writing love  
technically the same  
I am a living thing  
I am not a human being  
but I'm alive - I'm alive...

Matt found himself tapping his fingers when Michael beamed at him and started over. 

By the second line, Michael was tapping his fingers too, the exact same tempo, with the exact same fingers.

The Spine stepped forward towards the deeper water. And thanks to the music he was alive.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Blue, brighten up my sky](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1063404) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account)




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